Sunderland Sings!
This year we were finally able to return to the Sunderland Empire Theatre to celebrate our Big Sing! (The 1st time in 4 years). We had a wonderful afternoon singing and celebrating with other schools from across Sunderland and Sunderland Music Hub. This years theme was ‘Hear us Roar’ to celebrate the Women’s World Cup taking place in July and celebrating some of the many amazing female artists from around the world! The children in attendance had an amazing afternoon and we had front row seats!
World Music Day 2023
This year for World Music Day each year group were given a different composer from throughout musical history. The children have enjoyed listening to the composers music, researching and learning about them. The children were immersed into the music and enjoyed the different activities set. The outcomes for each year group were diverse and ranged from dancing and singing to art to composition. We shared our work in a whole school assembly, what a wonderful way this was to open our minds to new pieces of music and composers.
Year 4 World Music Day
Year 4 learned about the modern day composer John Williams. He is not only a famous composer but a conductor and pianist too. Did you know he has been composing for over 70 years? We discovered that he has composed many movie scores over the years – many of which we recognised. He works in ‘leitmotifs’ which means themes. He assigns a musical score to different characters in movies, he sets the scene using music to create mystery, suspense, magic, love etc. We explored many pieces of his music, we listened and appraised, created emotion art focussing on his leitmotifs for Star Wars characters and discussed how the music changed and why. We then composed a musical rap assigning a leitmotif to the character names we used. Some of us also created a double page spread about him in Literacy. Here is some of the work we produced:
Christmas Carols at Tesco
This afternoon our children from choir and show club put on a fantastic performance, singing for the customers at Tesco!
Strange Creatures Production
Year 2 went to Southwick Community Centre to watch a production called ‘Strange Creatures.’ It was a story about an alien, called Beegu, who fell to earth and had no friends. She had to make friends and find a way to make it back to her family. In the show there were some fabulous musical performers using violins, violas and cellos to play different moods of music. We had a great time!
Year 2 World Music Day
For world music day we choose to look at Indian music. We listened to a number of pieces and found the pulse, rhythm and beat. We also listened and appraised a number of songs and voted which piece of music we enjoyed the most. We listened carefully and identified different Indian instruments. We looked at these on the internet and listened to them being played. Our favourite was the sitar. We then watched different Indian dances and choose a piece of music that we would like to dance to and add instruments to. Miss Atkinson helped us to choreograph a dance. We also added instruments.
Harvest Festival…
Our whole school assembly was a huge hit! The whole school, sang, parents joined in and our wonderful choir had their part too! We sang, we shantied our own version of The Wellerman with harvest lyrics and had a wonderful time in the process!
Year 6 Glockenspiel…
Year 6 have been learning different notes on the Glockenspiels and building upon last year’s learning by accompanying their knowledge to Happy, by Pharrell Williams. Not only were we in tune and in time, we could also free style and improvise! We were amazing!
The Big Sing!
Year 4 took part in this year’s Big Sing with a host of other schools (digitally of course!) and we were wonderful! Keep your eyes peeled for this year’s Big Sing where we will be taking part again!
Music Week 2021
This year’s music week was a whole school celebration of music linked to countries around the world. Each year group listened to a range of music from their chosen country. We listened and appraised different composers and genres, stating what instruments we could hear, what the tempo and dynamics were like and whether we enjoyed them (giving reasons of course!) The feedback from both staff and children was amazing and we cannot wait until the summer for our next one! Watch this space!
Year 1 studied Ireland and did some Irish dancing to traditional Irish music …
Year 4 looked at Germany and did some emotion art linked to the works of Hans Zimmer…
Glockenspiel
Last half term in Music, Year 4 revisited playing the Glockenspiel. This was their first performance of a composition using the notes D and E – we are sure you’ll agree they are absolutely amazing!
